Progress Amid Resistance

★iraqby Huda AhmedPOPULATION: 30,047,000GNI PER CAPITA: US$2,406COUNTRY RATINGS 2004 2009NONDISCRIMINATION AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE: 2.7 2.7AUTONOMY, SECURITY, AND FREEDOM OF THE PERSON: 2.6 1.9ECONOMIC RIGHTS AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY: 2.8 2.6POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIC VOICE: 2.2 2.6SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS: 2.1 2.3(COUNTRY RATINGS ARE BASED ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 5, WITH 1 REPRESENTING THE LOWEST AND 5 THEHIGHEST LEVEL OF FREEDOM WOMEN HAVE TO EXERCISE THEIR RIGHTS)INTRODUCTIONIraqi women’s rights advocates, men and women alike, began their strugglefor equality at the beginning of the last century. They formed organizationsand mounted rallies and demonstrations to demand political, social, andeconomic rights from the turbulent country’s successive regimes. Womenmanaged to secure some of these rights after General Abdel-Karim Qassimseized power in 1958 and passed a new personal status law in 1959. 1The new law gave Iraqi women what were considered progressive rightsregarding marriage, inheritance, polygamy, and child custody. However,any legal guarantees remained tenuous given Iraq’s unstable political situation.In 1963, Qassim was overthrown and killed by his erstwhile comrade,Abdel-Salam Arif, with the help of the Ba’ath Party. Arif later reversedQassim’s personal status code and reintroduced rules based on Shari‘a(Islamic law). He also turned against the Ba’ath Party, leading to a feud thatended with his death in a helicopter crash. He was succeeded by his brother,Abdel-Rahman Arif, until the Ba’ath Party took power in 1968.The constitution implemented by the Ba’ath Party in 1970 barred genderdiscrimination and provided women with additional rights in the areasof education and employment, among others. To strengthen secularismand gain the support of women, the Ba’ath Party established the General157